Dragon Age: Origins - Anyone playing?

[Skywalker]

I don't have any problems reading the text, but I'm playing on an HDTV.

I'm 36 hours into the game, and so far I've only completed half of the main Blight-related quests, and I'm only level 14. This is gonna take me a while.

Huh? I'm 37 hours in and I'm struggling to find stuff to do to avoid ending the game. Have pretty much done the available side quests and am considering getting the DLC fort just to prolong the experience. Dunno have you're stuck at 14...

I'm not "stuck." Have you explored every area fully and gone through every Codex entry, etc.? I've been very, very thorough, that's probably one reason why my playthrough's gone on so long. Another reason why might be because...

Spoiler: The Arl of Redcliffe

I took the very long route when it came to freeing the Arl's son from the demon. Instead of letting the Arl's wife sacrifice herself so the blood mage could use her blood to enter the Fade, I went up to the Circle of Magi and defeated the abominations there, then I got the surviving Mages to help me enter the Fade and kill the demon possessing the Arl's son.

That probably added a good chunk of hours to my game.

 

[Trubinator]

I don't have any problems reading the text, but I'm playing on an HDTV.

I'm 36 hours into the game, and so far I've only completed half of the main Blight-related quests, and I'm only level 14. This is gonna take me a while.

Huh? I'm 37 hours in and I'm struggling to find stuff to do to avoid ending the game. Have pretty much done the available side quests and am considering getting the DLC fort just to prolong the experience. Dunno have you're stuck at 14...

I'm not "stuck." Have you explored every area fully and gone through every Codex entry, etc.? I've been very, very thorough, that's probably one reason why my playthrough's gone on so long. Another reason why might be because...

Spoiler: The Arl of Redcliffe

I took the very long route when it came to freeing the Arl's son from the demon. Instead of letting the Arl's wife sacrifice herself so the blood mage could use her blood to enter the Fade, I went up to the Circle of Magi and defeated the abominations there, then I got the surviving Mages to help me enter the Fade and kill the demon possessing the Arl's son.

That probably added a good chunk of hours to my game.

Yep. Explored every area fully and read through some codex entries.

Spoiler: Fade

I also took the longer route than you did with the kid. I made Morrigan go through the fade to rescue the kid, and then I still went through the long process of clearing out the abominations.

 

[Skywalker]

Huh, weird. I have no idea why mine's taken so long, then.

Might want to fix your spoiler code, though.

 

[Trubinator]

Dunno. I sort of envy you though because I was disappointed to learn I was so near the game's conclusion at about 40 hours. BioWare had said it could last 70-80, so I honestly figured it would be epic Baldur's Gate 2 length.

 

[firehawk12]

Welp, got my 1000 points. Maybe I should watch the videos that came with the bonus DVD or something.

Here's where I wish there was director's commentary in games though. People need to rip Valve off and do that... it'd get me to go through the game again anyway.

 

[Manticore]

Argh.

Spoiler: Issue I'm having - don't click for spoilers

I'm in the temple above Haven, and those drakes are tearing me to pieces. I did one fight I think three times, and I just got destroyed on another. Do you have any tips on how to beat them, with Alistair, Leliana, Wynne, and a dual-wield warrior? It's getting quite...frustrating.

Eh, I got it. A friend helped me tweak the tactics on Wynne (which helped immensely) and Leliana (who I was stupidly using as a melee rogue), and the fights went from all but impossible to surprisingly easy.

It just goes to show how powerful the tactics are in this game. Seriously, one of the best innovations that the game has to offer, and I wouldn't mind something like them getting applied to future squad-based games.

 

[Skywalker]

On another note, Starfang kicks ass, both visually and statwise. I hope BioWare didn't limit your ability to obtain it to the Soldier's Peak DLC, because that would be seriously lame.

Oh, and I'm up over 40 hours now, and I still have yet to visit Orzammar.

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

Ugh, just ran in to the first prompt for me to pay money to play a section. After reading about it online I think it's total bullshit that the Warden's Keep cost's you an extra 7 bucks to play. I mean... what the fuck?

Spoiler: warden's keep

You're trying to muster forces to beat back this blight, and this guy lets you know that there's this awesome abandoned warden's fortress that you can check out. If you do you the quest, you end up with a home base to work out of, which would be perfect and would go with the story. But no, you have to pay extra money for it!? Fuck these guys. Don't interrupt my game by dangling these advertisements for extra content. It's an RPG and I can't make the logical in story choice because they want an extra 7 bucks.

 

[Skywalker]

I expected things like that to happen once EA bought out BioWare. DLC is the name of the game nowadays, sadly.

It is pretty darn annoying to have to shell out an additional $7 even if you've already purchased the Collector's Edition--everything should have come free with that.

 

[Arrqh]

I expected things like that to happen once EA bought out BioWare. DLC is the name of the game nowadays, sadly.

Yeah, Bioware never had paid DLC before! Clearly it is all EA's evildoing.

 

[Skywalker]

I'm not saying EA's evil or anything. They're better than Activision at least.

And the Premium Module thing was pretty lame (I never bought any), but those came out after BioWare had already released two solid expansions. It's not as if they said, "Hey, we have a new game called Neverwinter Nights coming out, but in order to get the full experience you need to buy these cool Premium Modules in addition to the actual game!"

 

[Arrqh]

My point is just that this ship has already sailed... and it's done so because people keep buying DLC. As the point of most companies is to make a profit, well, what do you expect to happen? The market has apparently spoken. I ain't too pleased with it either, but there you go.

 

[Skywalker]

You keep your filthy logic out of here, mister!

 

[Arrqh]

Never!

 

[CommodoreKong]

My point is just that this ship has already sailed... and it's done so because people keep buying DLC. As the point of most companies is to make a profit, well, what do you expect to happen? The market has apparently spoken. I ain't too pleased with it either, but there you go.

I don't buy any DLC, and I'm enjoying all the free DLC I get from Valve for Team Fortress 2 and the Left 4 Dead series.

I wish more developers and publishers would adapt Valve's DLC policy. The best way for console developers to prevent a flood of used copies on store shelves is to release a stream of free DLC.

 

[Trubinator]

EA sucks. I know BioWare did paid content before, but I'm just not digging the Warden's Keep thing that launched for $7. It should have shipped free with the game.

 

[Manticore]

My point is just that this ship has already sailed... and it's done so because people keep buying DLC. As the point of most companies is to make a profit, well, what do you expect to happen? The market has apparently spoken. I ain't too pleased with it either, but there you go.

I don't buy any DLC, and I'm enjoying all the free DLC I get from Valve for Team Fortress 2 and the Left 4 Dead series.

I wish more developers and publishers would adapt Valve's DLC policy. The best way for console developers to prevent a flood of used copies on store shelves is to release a stream of free DLC.

You know, I've never quite understood how Valve is able to afford putting out such high-quality DLC for free. MMOs I can understand, since they have the subs, and I also understand paid DLC.

 

[CommodoreKong]

My point is just that this ship has already sailed... and it's done so because people keep buying DLC. As the point of most companies is to make a profit, well, what do you expect to happen? The market has apparently spoken. I ain't too pleased with it either, but there you go.

I don't buy any DLC, and I'm enjoying all the free DLC I get from Valve for Team Fortress 2 and the Left 4 Dead series.

I wish more developers and publishers would adapt Valve's DLC policy. The best way for console developers to prevent a flood of used copies on store shelves is to release a stream of free DLC.

You know, I've never quite understood how Valve is able to afford putting out such high-quality DLC for free. MMOs I can understand, since they have the subs, and I also understand paid DLC.

Usually when Valve releases new content for one of their games they have a sale on it through Steam. Given the high amount of press coverage for the new content, along with the new lower price I imagine they sell a enough copies through Steam to justify the cost of the updates.

Plus I remember reading in an interview that the current TF2 development team is pretty small, only a couple of people are currently working on new content which is why it's typically 3 months between updates.

 

[firehawk12]

I'm not sure where I stand with BioWare DLC. The problem is that the Mass Effect DLC was just crap and it feels like Warden's Keep was designed long before the game was finished, so they could put more time into it.

I guess the real test is the next DLC - whenever it comes out. Will it be crap like Pinnacle Station? Middling like Bring Down The Sky? Or, if you want to count this one as DLC - as good as The Stone Prisoner?

If anything, I'd hope for full voice acting and new party member responses and interaction... along with a reasonable story. It can't be new loot or abilities any more because by the time it comes out, everyone will have finished the game and moved on.

One real problem is that they kind of screwed themselves up by pretty much saying that all DLC will take place before the end of the game and just dumped you to the world map. I mean, if they wanted to play on the "Origins" concept, they could do DLC stories for each of the party members... so you can play Leliana back in Orlesia or Zevran back in Antiva.

Of course, that's venturing in GTA4 DLC territory... but if they want to do it right, they'd put in that effort. After the Mass Effect DLC, they really have a lot to prove... especially since the "doctors" went around promoting Pinnacle Station as if it were the next great thing in Mass Effect lore.

 

[Trubinator]

Just finished the game here after 43ish hours of play. I felt like the game wandered around trying to find itself again part way through, but the ending really redeemed the game in my eyes. I hope for a few expansion packs to explore beyond the Amaranthine Ocean or Orlais. Not liking endless DLC, but we'll see. Good work though BioWare!